India Women created history on Monday as they beat England Women in the one-off Test at Lord’s. It was the first-ever women’s Test at the historic venue in London.
Needing 457 to win, England Women started the fourth and last day from their overnight score of 130/6 but they could only go as far as 186 all out. Sneh Rana took the lead in the bowling department and picked up four wickets. Kranti Gaud, who took a five-for in the first innings, and Sayali Satghare chippped in with two wickets each.
Yastika Bhatia’s 113 in the second innings was one of the highlights of the match. She became the first woman ever to score a century at the iconic venue. Earlier in the game, England Women won the toss and put Harmanpreet Kaur’s bunch into bat. Smriti Mandhana (83), Harmanpreet (58) and Deepti Sharma (57) scored important fifties as the visitors posted 285.
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Medium pacer Gaud then ran through the hosts’ batting line-up with figures of 5/37. England Women could only manage 170 in their reply. After a first-innings lead of 115 runs, Yastika, Smriti (70) — her second fifty in the match — and Richa Ghosh (50 not out) ensured England Women never got back into game as the team from the sub-continent declared their second innings on 341/7, setting a mammoth target of 457 for the hosts.
Earlier on day four, before the start of play, India great Sachin Tendulkar spent some time with the women’s team and gave them a nice, little pep-talk.
Soothing win after disgrace from men’s team
Indian cricket fans will get some of their pride back with this win, in light of how the Indian men’s team recently performed in the UK in T20Is. They played seven games and lost six of them, with one being a washout. They started their UK tour with two T20Is against minnows Ireland, and in what was a shocking result for them, the world champions lost both under new captain Shreyas Iyer.
Then in England, they lost four matches on the trot, with the opening game at Chester-le-Street being a washout. A three-ODI series starts between India and England from tomorrow, and one hopes the Shubman Gill-led team gets some motivation from the women’s heroics at Lord’s and makes up for the T20I team’s deficiencies with a series win in the 50-overs format.